Welcome to the second edition of the Nacro housing newsletter. This is an exciting time for Nacro as we embark on the review of our strategy. Growth and diversification will be important areas for us. This means growing our owned stock through acquisition and development, expanding our leased portfolio and developing our work in communities including sharing our views on improving the design and safety of places.

We would welcome commissioner perspectives and the ways in which we can contribute with solutions to tackle local challenges. We will be hosting an event in October to explore opportunities. If you are interested in being part of this, please drop me a line on the email below.

Meanwhile, below we showcase some of the great work we are delivering on the ground for service users, communities and commissioners across England and Wales – inspiring work being delivered by our committed and talented teams.

Knowledge of the local landscape means that we can give service users more opportunities to engage with the community from the day they move into a Nacro property. Partnership working allows our service users to develop support networks, increase their knowledge about existing resources in the community and gain confidence to move on into independent living.

If you would like to find out more about working with us please contact me on 020 7840 7226 or at joanne.drew@nacro.org.uk.

Joanne Drew, Director of Housing

Partnering to provide safe places for young people

Mandy Clarke of Families Working Together said, “We have worked in partnership now for nearly one year. Not only have I found you all so welcoming and professional, I have also found you to be so knowledgeable in the field of youth homelessness and how best to support the young people in need.”

Nottingham City Council praises our Nottingham Young Person’s Accommodation Project for engaging well with partners

A recent Nottingham City Council audit highlighted the project’s strengths:

Staff are committed to building strong relationships with partner agencies.

Staff actively encourage ensure service users to be involved in the wider community and engage in positive activities.

Staff work hard to ensure that service users don’t get trapped in supported accommodation and work with service users to prepare for moving on and becoming independent.

Joint initiative leads to better health awareness for families

The Health Support Service, a joint Lincolnshire Probation Trust and NHS initiative, approached Nacro last year to see if we were interested in health courses aimed at ex-offenders and those at risk of social exclusion. The service now delivers courses to homeless families living in Schoeffer House in Lincoln.

The courses aim to increase understanding of different health concerns and encourage positive change. Before the courses began, staff consulted service users to establish which courses they would find useful. The courses which have been delivered at Schoeffer House have covered a range of topics including drug and alcohol awareness, self perception, sexual and physical health and stress management.

Liam’s story

When Liam came to Nacro in March 2013 he had a range of mental health issues including self-harm and low self-esteem, as well as problems with substance misuse. The first few months were really difficult for Liam. He was in a transition stage between child and adult mental health services, which meant that only Nacro was providing Liam with mental health support.

Liam’s support worker suggested that he train as a peer mentor with the Nottingham Recovery College. The Nottingham Recovery College works with adults who have personal experience of mental health challenges, care about people with mental health challenges or work in mental health services. It provides a range of courses to help people develop their skills, identify their goals and ambitions and give them the confidence and support to access opportunities. Liam is now about to start his training and hopes to get paid employment once he has finished.

Liam said, “I could have engaged with the staff a lot more [at the start], and I wish I had. As soon as I did, my life really did start to turn around and good things started to happen. Getting my mental health issue diagnosed was a big thing, my support worker was really supportive in making this happen. And within days of that happening I moved into my own flat. Had my support worker not helped me with finding a property then that wouldn’t have happened. If it hadn’t been for the passion, compassion and determination of the staff at Nacro, I don’t know where I would be now. Probably in prison.”

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